Serpent's Spit
by Allthelezzies
Summary: A pregnant Ryn becomes ill. Maddie and Ben must race the clock to save her.
1. Chapter 1

Maddie drifts into reality from the foggy grasps of dreamland. The smell of bacon fills the tiny studio apartment keeping her from falling back into the haze. She lazily moves her hand from Ryn's thigh to her right eye as she rolls to her side to sturdy herself. She stretches long pointing out her toes and curling her ankles back in flaring out her toes. She blinks repeatedly clearing her eyes of the morning film. She peers over to Ryn still fast asleep. She moves her gaze along the chiseled jaw line, down her thin neck, over her collar bone, up and over her plump breast, and took in the small thin part of her lower chest just under her bosom. The smile began to peer out as she continued her vision quest vertically to the peek of the hump that had formed over the last 4 months in Ryn's tummy. Ryn was so tiny that her belly button had already started to push outward. Maddie moved her hand down to the top of the bump and rubbed lightly.

Ryn jerked and hissed. She rapidly moved her hand atop of Maddie's lightly digging in her nails to Maddie's skin. She relaxed instantly as Maddie slide closer and nuzzled into her neck, "It's Me." Ryn hissed lightly and released Maddie's hand, "Ok. Yes." There was a brief silence as both bodies adrenaline fell to normal. "Other Mother sing to baby," Ryn moved her hand to Maddie's lip and brushed it lightly, "baby swim, no sleep." Maddie squinted her eyes trying to decipher Ryn's butchered English.

She decoded that the baby had kept Ryn from sleeping from moving inside her throughout the night. Maddie moved down to the mound on Ryn's midsection and laid her head on Ryn's bust. She began to rub and sing a Hyda lullaby. After a couple minutes Ryn started to stroke Maddie's hair, "Good, Yes." Maddie could feel the baby start to slow inside Ryn. She felt Ryn's hand and stroke start to fade as Ryn faded into to sleep. Ryn's hand slide ploddingly down Maddie's hair until it landed on the bed.

Maddie had just started lullaby number two when Ben creeped around the corner. He stealthily leaned against the wall taking in the beautiful scene unfolding on the bed. He felt warmth flow over his body from satisfaction, elation, gratitude, and just pure happiness and contentment. In this moment, he knew how lucky he was to have not just one woman to love but two. The gift the Heavens, Earth, or whatever had given him. He had an unspoken truth that he would do whatever it took to protect these two women forever.

Maddie felt the intruding eyes and immediately stopped singing and moved her eyes up, alert and searching. The paranoia still hadn't subsided from the last two years of utter chaos. She exhaled with relief at Ben, "The baby had trouble sleeping." Ben smiled, "so you sang to her?" "Who said it was a she," she started to sit up and pull her hand away from Ryn's belly. But, Ryn's hand wisped through the air grabbing her wrist before she could move more than a half an inch away. "No stop," she demanded. Ben raised his eyebrows at the command and made a half laugh noise. Maddie raised her eyebrows forming a grin back as she submitted to the directive.

Ben jerked his head back toward the kitchen where he retreated to finish breakfast. It was a mere 15 minutes later when Ben carried the breakfast tray into the bedroom. Maddie squinted at him in confusion. She couldn't eat while short one hand. He jerked his head upward toward her and she began to strategically push herself up into a sitting position while simultaneously rubbing Ryn's belly. She made the movements light but swift to keep from waking Ryn. Ben sat the tray over Maddie's lap once she was into position and repositioned the pillows behind her back. She laid back into them. Ben moved to his side of the bed and fluffed the pillow out and up. He maneuvered onto the bed in a sitting position, feet crossed at the ankles and moved his hand to Maddie's. "You eat," he said motioning his head to the tray. She smiled and moved her hand from under his. She loved the way all three of them flowed together. They could work together with success without many words. "Thank you, this looks delicious," she smiled and picked up the fork.


	2. Chapter 2

Ryn woke a half hour later. Maddie had already deposed of the breakfast scrapes, showered, and dressed. They usually did this together, their normal morning routine, but today was a bit off. Maddie could sense it in the air, something just seemed amiss. It was the gnawing aloof feeling that made you suspicious of any euphoric feelings you had.

Ben and Ryn rose from the bed. They moved out of the bedroom and parted ways in the kitchen. Ben went to kiss Maddie who was rinsing the dishes and laying them in the drying tray. Ryn moved down the hall to the bathroom. Maddie and Ben whispered obscenities and groped each other losing themselves in the moment. These sweet savory moments. The endorphins coursed through their bodies; both their core temperatures started rise. Maddie would playfully acknowledge the advances and then go back to washing dishes dismissing his aggressions.

There was a loud sharp scratch that stopped them in the tracks. It sounded like a nail scraping across glass. They both trapped air in their lungs and stood corpse still. They meet each other's eyes, hearing the bathroom door wrench open. The rushed hustle of dragging footsteps down the hallway caused them to part from each other. They focused on the opening to the hallway, suspense and anxiety caused both their arms to fill with goose bumps. Ryn rounded the corner using the wall as support. She pushed herself off the wall into the opening of the kitchen and meet their eyes. A pleading desperate look covered her face.

Maddie's grip relaxed and the plate slide from her hand into the sink, the loud clanging noise cleared the deafness of panic muting their ears. "Oh my," Maddie and Ben rushed to Ryn, their hands automatically moved under her armpits as her legs gave way and all her weight transferred to them, "Ryn, what happened?" Ryn's face was flooding out blood. The blood had already soaked through the front top portion of the tank top. There was so much blood coming they couldn't pinpoint the cause.

They lowered Ryn to the ground, laying her flat. Maddie ripped her hands away, pushing quickly up to her feet and rushing over the stove. She ripped the two clean towels from oven door handle and rushed back. She dropped down beside them. Ben was trying to stimulate Ryn awake by digging his knuckles into her upper rib cage and gyrating, "Ryn." He called with no success. He continued his attempts and Maddie began to wipe the blood away from her nose and eyes. There was more blood from the ears and mouth but not puddling and running as the nose and eyes.

In a matter of a minute Maddie was halfway through the second towel and the blood was still oozing. "I can't," Maddie fighting back sobs, "it won't stop, Ben." Ben, by this point, was continuously checking her pulse, trying to stimulate her awake, and watching for breathing. Ryn was chokingly breathing shallow gasp through her mouth. There were bubbles started to form from a mixture of spit, blood, and air. Maddie and Ben could feel the tacit fear in each other. The fear of the most devasting event, losing Ryn. This was all happening to fast for them. They couldn't get ahead of the blood to even start to help or save her. She was bleeding out on their kitchen floor.

Ben franticly ripped away from them, hurrying to his feet, his blood-soaked hands fumbling with his cell on the counter. His movements conveyed the alarm, terror, and disorientation that clouded his thoughts. He smeared Ryn's blood across the screen as he unlocked the phone. Ben trying to make calculated moves through the panic, he dialed the only person he thought could help. Commander Kyle.

The phone rung once and was answered. Ben vomited the words, projecting as much crucial information as possible in a matter of seconds. He was able to get all the pertinent details out before he heard Maddie cry for him. He jolted back toward them and dropped the phone. A flood of trepidation and loss rushed over him as Ryn began to convulse on the floor.


End file.
